Incremental development

• Some strategies (not necessarily exclusive):
  • Iterative development: Develop the software in a series of iterations, with each iteration adding new functionality or improving existing features based on feedback and requirements.
  • Divide and conquer: Break down the overall project into smaller, more manageable tasks or modules. Focus on completing and testing one module at a time before moving on to the next.
  • Test-Driven Development (TDD): Write tests for the desired functionality before writing the actual code. This ensures that the code meets the requirements and can be easily tested for correctness.
• Some good practices:
  • Version control: track changes, collaborate with team members, and revert to previous versions if needed.
  • Code refactoring: rewrite parts of the code to improve its design, readability, and maintainability. Refactoring should be done incrementally to avoid introducing bugs.
  • Feature flags: code mechanisms to enable or disable new features in your program This allows you to gradually roll out new functionality and test it in a controlled manner.
  • Code stubs…

Code stubs

• Sometimes good programming is like in drawing: leave specific details to the end!

• You can mark what should be done later with code stubs:

As comments

def divide_numbers(a, b):
    # FIXME: Handle division by zero
    return a / b

# Example usage
result = divide_numbers(10, 0)
print(result)

• Later, you can search for the word “FIXME” in your code and start to “polish” these parts.

As output messages

def steps_to_calories(steps):
    print('FIXME: finish steps_to_calories')
    return -1

With the “pass” keyword

class Person():
  pass
  # FIXME implement constructor later
  
def ride_bike():
  pass

With exceptions

def get_points(num_points):
    """Get num_points from the user. Return a list of (x,y) tuples."""
    raise NotImplementedError